blue cloud abbey blue cloud abbey
VOL. 22 NO. 3 MARVIN SD 57251 AUTUMN 2011
It’s back to school time here in Grant County, South Dakota. In Guatemala pupils have been attending school all during our summer. The school year runs from January to October. Some boys and girls are being educated thanks to our Father Bernardine Ness who, with generous benefactors, is responsible for the construction of two schools in their mountain villages
Father Bernardine has been involved in various projects over the years. At present he is developing The Training Center for Educational Multimedia for the preservation of the culture and traditional ways of life in the indigenous communities. “By learning multimedia skills, individuals will continue to be self-sufficient and able to maintain a high quality of life.” Educational programs along with lessons in health and nutrition will be provided to these communities. The Benedictine Association of Coban is the sponsoring agency and has the support of Rotary International, the Guatemalan government, and private initiative.
“Too often, indigenous people are displaced from their communities due to economic necessity.” Father Bernardine has seen people leaving their villages in search of work and other opportunities that can be found in cities only. “This urban migration causes difficulties in adaptation and the fragmentation of traditions. By providing meaningful
work at home, young adults will have employment, entertainment, and the belongingness they need to live fulfilling lives.” Another project Father Bernardine has in mind is the procuring of chickens—at least 750 in the beginning. Their eggs will be used mainly for the nutrition program in the schools and money from the sale of eggs will be also used for the schools.
Two young men from The States built the chicken coop for him. Matthew Ott and Patrick Deering were with the St. John’s Volunteer Corps. These are alumni of St. John’s University, a Benedictine school at Collegeville, Minnesota, who volunteer to work with Benedictines in various parts of the world. Both have returned home now and are pursing careers for which they were trained. They had some experience with chickens, however, before going to Guatemala. Matt had worked on a poultry farm while in college and Pat had grown up on a hobby farm.
Ever since they arrived in this country in the 1800s, Benedictine men and women have been involved in education and vocational training. St. Benedict, however, dropped out of school in his youth. His biographer reports that young Benedict could not abide the loose living in Rome. He apparently got pledged to the wrong fraternity and left. “He took this step, fully aware of his ignorance, yet he was truly wise, uneducated though he might have been.”
With the collapse of the Roman education system, it was the Benedictines who became the educators of Europe like their monastic predecessors had been in Ireland. Students were drawn to their schools from home and abroad.
Both the aristocracy and commoners brought their sons to Benedict’s monastery. The monks imparted religious and secular knowledge to these students. Medieval nuns also had schools in their cloisters. Latin literature was taught and preserved by the Benedictines. And so was ethnic literature. I recall my public high school English teacher telling us—long before I ever thought of becoming a monk—that it was the monks who preserved the legend of Beowulf for posterity. This was in the tradition of Irish monks who had passed on their Celtic myths .
An English monk, Alcuin, was asked to establish a school at Charlemagne’s palace in 781. Legend has it that the Holy Roman Emperor himself was one of Alcuin’s students. Until then Charlemagne had been illiterate. Monastic schools were also technical colleges where trades and crafts were taught. Father Bernardine’s multimedia school follows that tradition.
Father Bernardine Ness, OSB
In founding his monastery, St. Benedict called it “a school of the Lord’s service.” He says there will be nothing “harsh or burdensome” in this school. By faithful perseverance we will earn our degree in this school of the Lord.
Early in June two candidates for the monastic life arrived here, Roger Mangels from Missouri and Michael McDaniels from North Dakota. We also had two associates with us for part of the summer.
(Left to right: Candidate Roger, Father Michael Peterson, Novice Master and Vocation Director, and Candidate Michael.)
Candidate Roger has taught school and worked for the Boy Scouts of America and has been a professional actor. Candidate Michael was a school bus driver for several years and as a hobby collected and repaired hundreds of bicycles. By the time this newsletter reaches you, both will have been received into the novitiate.
July was so hot that one week the monks fled to the church basement to pray the Divine Office and offer the Eucharist. This chapel is usually used by retreat groups who wish to worship in a more private setting than in the larger abbey church which is not air conditioned. Neither is the basement chapel but it’s a much cooler place.
July, though, was not hot enough to prevent the handball enthusiasts from playing a few games.
The month of August had cooled off by the time the Huron Symphony Strings arrived here to perform a concert and to play at a Sunday morning liturgy. Liz Soladay has been bringing these musicians here for the past three years. She plays viola with them and with the South Dakota Symphony.
Some disturbing news was received by the community this summer. The town of Marvin is one of eighty in South Dakota that will have their post offices closed. This will happen several months from now. We have not yet been informed what form mail service will take.
The town of Marvin, like the community of Blue Cloud Abbey, was once much larger. When I came here in 1958, there was a grocery store, a filling station, lumber yard, blacksmith shop, poultry produce store, and café. Both the Baptist and Lutheran churches were open and a grade school existed. Now there are only a bar and the not-for-long post office. Most of the commercial buildings and many houses have been torn down. The Marvin resident who built the present post office is deceased.
Some of the monks helped him with the construction of the building.
In 1958 there were a lot more people living in Marvin than the twenty-one who are now residents. And living in the monastery a mile from town were twice as many monks as there are now. So much has changed in our neighborhood. But we are still neighbors even as we decrease. One day in the post office a Marvin citizen asked some strangers to the area if they had seen “our abbey.”
I was pleased that this person was able to use the personal possessive. I’d recently read an address by Sister Ruth Fox of Sacred Heart Monastery Richardton, North Dakota in which she stated that a monastery doesn’t belong exclusively to the people who live in it. She asked, “Do we need to widen the door and enhance the threshold of the house of God in order to be open to more multicultural persons and influence?”
Although our Benedictine community has decreased in membership, we continue being a place to which a multitude of people come from various backgrounds and for various reasons. In the years following Vatican Council II, the door of our monastery opened even wider. People who’d never had any reason to come inside were now doing so. Ecumenical dialog took place at Blue Cloud Abbey when the Council was still in session. The presence of Protestant groups at Blue Cloud became common and remains so.
Not only other Christians have come to Blue Cloud Abbey, we have also had both a Buddhist monk and a Buddhist nun as guests. And one of our monks welcomes the opportunity to participate in East-West dialogue.
Although we no longer work on reservations in the Dakotas, Native American people remain in touch with us. More recently Hispanic people have often been found at Blue Cloud Abbey. These are people who work on dairies in our neighborhood and know that there are Spanish speaking monks at Blue Cloud.
“People are flocking to our doors to find peace, to deepen their relationship with God, to learn how to pray,” Sister Ruth has observed. “To respond to those hungers, Benedictines in this millennium should take seriously their role and responsibility to share the riches of their spiritual life.”
There are many recovering alcoholics who call Blue Cloud Abbey their “spiritual home.” At Twelve Step retreats the comment is often made, “I keep coming back here because this is my spiritual home.”
All of this is related to the admonition of St. Benedict to receive guests as Christ himself. “Never turn away when someone needs your love,” is one of Benedict’s Instruments of Good Works. He also stresses the importance of accepting poor people into the monastery “because in them more particularly Christ is received.”
I’m thinking of some oblates of our community who practiced this injunction. Pat and Jenny Downey went around to supermarkets in the city and procured food items (including turkeys) which they distributed from their garage to the poor at Thanksgiving time. Stella Pretty Sounding Flute prepared a Thanksgiving meal at her house for people who had nowhere to go on the occasion. These oblates also provided shelter in their homes for people in need.
We received the following letter a while back: “Thank you for opening your monastic house to guests like me. When I reflect on the monastery from many miles away, it brings me back to myself and there is a great comfort knowing that whatever happens in this world, the monks are still working
and praying, free of fear of the death and destruction so prevalent in the world. Thank you for maintaining a spirit and climate of loving kindness.”
Father John McMullen signing his renewal of vows chart on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee of Profession, August 15, 2011. Brother Chris Wesely, the Master of Ceremonies, will observe his Silver Jubilee of profession in a couple years.
Like the town of Marvin, our population is also decreasing. Nevertheless, people continue coming here and finding us at home. We pray that there will always be someone here to welcome them.
Brother Benet Tvedten, OSB
“The concern must be whether
the novice truly seeks God.”
The Rule of St. Benedict
SEEKING SEEKERS